Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days

No one likes listening to smug hippies bragging about how they don't use toilet paper, or worse yet, lecturing about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprint. With this in mind, Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.

Vanessa goes to the extremes of selling her car, unplugging the fridge, and washing her hair with vinegar, but she also does easy things like switching to an all-natural lip balm. All the while, she is forced to reflect on what it truly means to be green.

Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement.

So what does 366 days of eco-cynicism really look like?

• An Eco-Cynic’s Journey: Follow Vanessa for 366 days as she tries to save the planet without becoming one of those “smug hippies.”
• Hilarious Green Fails: From washing her hair with vinegar to accidentally setting her kettle on fire, discover which changes are doable and which are just too hardcore.
• Apartment Composting: Find out what really happens when you try to keep a bin full of worms and rotting cabbage in a seven-hundred-square-foot, open-concept kitchen.
• Relatable and Honest: This isn’t a preachy how-to guide; it’s a refreshingly funny look at the reality of the green movement for the rest of us.

“A humorous, self-deprecating tale of the crazy things that happen to normal people when they take the green plunge.”
—Alisa Smith, coauthor of Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet

"One step a day doesn't seem like much, but over the course of a whole year it adds up to a world of difference. This isn't just a well-written and fun book about going green, it is about watching a personal transformation. Being inspired was never so entertaining."—Lloyd Alter, Treehugger.com

"Lively and specific, Farquharson’s forthright chronicle of the ups and downs of green awareness is the perfect book for eco-skeptics."—Booklist